Maps for Copenhagen

2012 - 2015
Trampoline House, Copenhagen, DK

Maps for Copenhagen is an investigation into aspects of temporality, belonging, public space, cartography and how you can start to interact with a new city, across barriers like language, different cultural backgrounds and not having much money in the bank.

Since 2012, Signe and I have been engaged in the Trampoline House, a culture house in Copenhagen for asylum seekers, migrants, and everyone else. Here we have organized different activities and gathered knowledge about the city together with a large group of people, most of whom we met in the house. Dialogues and collective mappings have been central tools.

We have asked questions like: what does Copenhagen look like, when you have just arrived? How do you find your way around? What places in the city do you like and what places would you recommend to others? Where do you go to meet new friends? And how do you use the city with out much money in your pocket?

In December 2014 we presented the first guidebook to Copenhagen in both Danish, English and Arabic. The book represents knowledge about the city, advice and shared experiences that have arisen in the process of its creation.
The guidebook contains 10 thematic chapters, each chapter with a city map made by an artist. The guidebook essentially provides tips and guidance to free or effortdable places.

The project is in many ways a reaction to the Danish asylum system, where people live in camps away from the city centre for years, are not allowed to work, and have very little money to get by on. It is a system that creates isolation and poverty. We are interested in how, people despite this framework,people still can start interacting with the city and its possibilities. Showing that good experiences are also possible, even in the middle of a challenging and potentially traumatic period.

The guidebook is available for free in the Trampoline House. It can also be bought at the Museum of Copenhagen and at the bookshop at Den Frie. Each time we sell a book, we will make a new one, which will be freely available at the Trampoline House.

Featuring artworks by: Annette Skov, Bonnie Fortune, Emma Smith, Lucia Merlo, Maj Horn, Nermin Durakovic, Nikolas Theilgaard, Paula Bulling, Parul Modha, Sara Grønborg, Søren Assenholt and Vladimir Tomic.
Graphic design: Eller med a.
Translators: Ali Ali, Shams Hashim Alfadal, Natasha Hogan.

Financial support:
Nørrebro Lokaludvalg, Interkulturelt Center (IKC), Grosserer L. F. Foghts Fond and BUPL.

//mapsforcopenhagen.com